


Perks

by goodgollyzollie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/F, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, cis-swapped characters, different teams AU, doughnut shop au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 11:31:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6983146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodgollyzollie/pseuds/goodgollyzollie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daichi's job may be shitty, but she's got one perk that's worth it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perks

Daichi’s job didn’t have a lot of perks.

    It was sweaty, for one. The ovens in the back made sure that whatever wisps of hair brushed against her neck clung to her. And the only source of cool air was a cheap fan she had balanced on the edge of the counter. Even that was starting to break after being knocked on the ground so many times.

    Another downside was the customers. She got the moms who brought in fifty children who pressed their gross fingers up against the glass she literally just cleaned two minutes ago and demanded the pastries they wanted all at the same time, or she got the creepy older men who ordered a cup of coffee and tried to flirt with her for seven minutes.

    And, even though she got a significant discount on them, she didn’t want to eat another doughnut for the next ten years.

    So far, five months into her shitty doughnut shop job, the only thing she looked forward to was the pretty silver haired setter that came by every afternoon. Or, at least, every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and every other Saturday afternoon.

     The first time she came around, Daichi was sure it was just a fluke. The co-worker who had been training her had disappeared in the back to help with some baking issue, so the nervous and sweaty Daichi was left alone at the front counter. She’d been wiping the same spot of the counter for about a half a minute when the brass bell above the door chimed. All too loudly and quickly, Daichi straightened up and called “Welcome!”

    The person, a lean girl with long silver hair tied in a loose ponytail and long legs shown off by black running shorts, jumped slightly. 

    “Oh! Um, t-thanks,” she said, eyeing Daichi. Daichi immediately flushed red and, as a form of escape, ducked back to scrub more on the counter. The girl, watching her curiously for a moment, said “Is the smudge maybe inside the case?”

    “Wha-” Daichi crouched down and saw, in fact, it was. She leaned her head against the hard edge of the counter, and gave a small nod. She was planning her (true) escape when the girl crouched down on the other side of the glass and tapped lightly on it.

    “I think I know what I want.” Her voice was a bit muffled by the glass, but her amused smile wasn’t. It wasn’t necessarily teasing, but there was something playful about it.  _ Oh, she’s cute. _

    Daichi widened her eyes in surprise at herself. But she nodded, stood up, and reached for a sheet of wax paper.

    “What can I get for you?” Daichi mumbled, forcing herself to make eye contact because she wasn’t totally unprofessional. The silver haired girl pointed to a fat glazed doughnut, and placed the money on the counter before smiling brightly. Daichi counted the change and, to her delight, it was exact.

    She passed the girl her pastry in a crinkly paper bag, attempting a smile. “Have a nice day.”

    “You too!” The girl smiled, and unzipped a blue gym bag that had been hanging on her body, placing the doughnut in it. She gave a small wave, secured the bag back on her, and pulled open the chiming door. Then she was gone.

    “Ah, you took care of it? Good job, Sawamura!” The other employee had come back, and nodded approvingly at her, clapping her on the shoulder hard enough to make Daichi flinch.

    She glanced over at the case Daichi had been scrubbing. “It looks like there’s a smudge on the inside there. Can you get that?”

     “Sure.” Daichi muttered, and the other employee disappeared in the back again, leaving Daichi to wallow in her embarrassing existence.

_     I’ll probably never see her again. I’ll never get to prove that I’m not just some idiot who can’t tell if a smudge is inside or outside of a glass case. Good going, Daichi. _

 

    “Asahi, I don’t think you fully understand my situation.” Daichi mumbled around the plastic straw of her bubble tea. She leaned back in the pleather seat of their booth, watching the taller brunette trying to press back an amused smile.

    Asahi, apparently regaining temporary composure, shrugged. “If you never see her again, what’s the matter?”

    Daichi set her cup down with a bit more force that necessary. “She could tell her friends about me. About that fool that works at the doughnut shop downtown.”

    “I doubt you made that big of an impression on her, Daichi. For better or worse,” Asahi, finishing her drink, pulled out her phone and checked it. “And if she does come back, maybe you’ll have another chance at redemption.”

    She looked up, smile twisting a little more maliciously. “Or you could mess up again, then you would definitely have stories told about you.”

    Daichi just looked at Asahi, a slightly betrayed look on her face. “You’re supposed to be my nice friend.”

    “I wonder what Noya’s doing right now.” Asahi mused, dark blue fingernails darting across her keyboard while Daichi watched her with a slightly open mouth.

    The second time Daichi met the silver haired teen, she was still stewing over a test she had failed that morning. She was glaring at the bell over the door when it chimed, causing her to start as if she didn’t know what bells did. When she recovered, she saw a panting girl standing in the threshold.

    When the girl glanced at Daichi’s face she grinned slightly. 

    “Hey, it’s you,” she panted, before fanning her face. “Gosh, it’s hot outside today. Shouldn’t it be cooling down right about now?”

    She fumbled with her bag, before her fingers connected with a metal water bottle. Laughing triumphantly, she poured a fair amount into her mouth before looking back at Daichi. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, “totally rude of me to start a conversation and then drink grossly from a water bottle.”

    “You’re fine.” Daichi said. “And it is way too hot.” She glanced around her, and spotted the cheap fan. “Here.” She turned the fan to face the teen, and was immediately aware of how lame it was as a cooling source, but the girl practically jumped at it.

    “Thank you! Oh, this feels so nice,” she purred, waving her face in the stream of cool-ish air.

    After a moment, she straightened up and smiled sheepishly again.

    “I’m just full of weirdness today, sorry.” She looked over the glass case for a moment, before strolling over to the glass case with various juices and cool things in it. After a moment of deliberation, she withdrew an overpriced bottle of some weird fruit drink. Daichi’s nose reflexively wrinkled, and the girl laughed.

    “As much as I love my fats and sugar, they’re not going to get me in shape for the volleyball team,” she said, handing the bottle to Daichi and reaching for her wallet, “and my body would not appreciate the extra calorie heat today.”

    “Volleyball?” Daichi couldn’t help it; she kind of had this  _ thing _ about it, and this  _ thing _ was more like an obsession. The only reason she even decided to get a job here was because the times didn’t conflict with her practice schedule. “What’s your position?”

    The girl raised her eyebrows (she had a damn cute mole next to her left eye) but said, “Setter. Why, do you play?”

    Daichi nodded. 

    “Wing spiker for Karasuno. Captain, actually.”

    The girl smiled. 

    “I’m at Aoba Johsai, not captain.” She passed the bottle to Daichi, and began counting out the money. “So I guess that makes us rivals.”

    Smirking, Daichi held out her palm for the money. 

    “I guess so. It’s an extra 3oo yen for rivals, by the way.”

    The girl paused, looking up at Daichi with furrowed brows. Daichi tried to keep her face composed, but a twitch of her lips made the girl huff and pout her lip out. 

    “I nearly believed you, too,” she muttered while Daichi chuckled. The brunette passed the bottle and extra change over the counter. The girl took them, and all too fast, Daichi realized that she was going to leave.

    Before she had time to process what she was saying, Daichi blurted “I’m Daichi.”

    “And I’m Suga,” the girl said almost immediately after, fingers tightening around her bottle. Both girls stared at each other, steadily growing redder the longer the maintained eye contact and silence. Finally, Daichi thought to croak out “Cool.”

    Before they had to suffer through another awkward pause, Suga’s phone exploded with an excessively loud and obnoxious ringtone, causing both of the girls to start. Looking apologetically at Daichi, Suga pulled out her phone and answered it.

    “Hey...I’m coming, I’m coming…Oikawa…I know, trust me…yes, I’m coming.” Suga jabbed at her phone with a bit more force than called for, and sighed through her nose.

    Daichi, not quite sure what to say, asked, “Boyfriend?”  _ Please say no. Wait, what? _

    “Huh?” Suga looked up, then laughed. “No, team captain. My totally anal team captain, I should say.” She sighed again, then reluctantly raised her hand to wave goodbye. “See you later, Daichi.”

    Once she was gone, Daichi ducked down behind the counter, blushing furiously. “See you later, Daichi,” she repeated to herself, voice squeaking a bit.

“Sawamura, what the hell are you doing back there?”

 

"She plays volleyball?” Asahi raised her eyebrows, before opening her water bottle and drinking deeply. The heat in the gym was stifling, and all of the Karasuno team was covered in a sheen of sweat. Even Tsukishima, who claimed she wasn’t affected by heat the way the rest of them were, was patting the back of her neck hastily.

    “Yeah, Aoba Johsai. She’s one of the setters.” Daichi pulled her fingers through her thick ponytail, fingers catching on a snarl. Wincing, she tugged it and felt the knot give away.

    “And her name is Suga,” Asahi smiled at Daichi. “Well, I guess you didn’t mess up too much if you got all that, huh?”

    Daichi, dropping the towel she had been holding and turning to call the rest of her team back together, whispered “No thanks to you.”

    Asahi gave a weak giggle, and patted her shoulder. “But in all seriousness, Daichi, I’m happy for you.”

    Daichi, glancing back at her vice-captain, grinned widely. “I’m happy for me, too.”

\-----

“So,” Suga leaned across the counter, smirking slightly at Daichi, “what do I have to do to get you to spill the secrets of the Karasuno volleyball team to me?”

    “Tell me Aoba Johsai’s and we may have a deal.” Daichi rested her elbows on the counter, leaning in slightly towards Suga. Suga tsked and leaned back, sucking lightly on her lower lip.

    “Oikawa would chop off my head and spike it, so I’ll pass.”

    “I would have to pass, too. You have an awfully pretty head.” The words were out of her mouth before she could check them, but Suga just laughed and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

    It’d been two months since Suga had started coming to visit Daichi at the doughnut shop. Since then, they’d exchanged numbers (Suga had a terrible habit of texting Daichi during class, and Daichi had a terrible habit of texting her right back,) gone shopping together (only once, but Daichi discovered that Suga “dressed purely for the atheistic” and owned only clothes in varying shades of white, black, grey, and blue,) and had a sort of date (Suga took her nephew to the movies and had invited Daichi along for moral support.)

    The weather had also gotten colder, so Suga no longer showed up wearing shorts that showcased her legs nicely. But she did wear tight leggings, so it was almost the same. Almost.

    Suga looked up from her phone. “Would Asahi mind if you told me your team’s plays?”

    Daichi tried to imagine her vice-captain spiking her severed head, and after a slightly comical and disturbing thought process, she shrugged. “She’d mind, of course, but I doubt she would maim and defile my body over it.”

    Suga laughed again, and her phone chirped. Looking down, she wrinkled her nose. “I have to go. Prettykawa is already nagging me.”

    She looked up guiltily, but Daichi was already shaking her head. “I’ll call you later. I have work to do, after all.” The brunette looked quickly around the extremely clean and empty shop, and hoped Suga didn’t see her do that.

    She did. 

“I could skip.” Suga said, looking up brightly.

“Suga, that’s not a good idea.” As much as Daichi wanted Suga to stay with her, she also didn’t want Suga to get in trouble with Oikawa.

“I’m just the extra setter. They won’t miss me if I’m not there for one day.”

“That’s a lie.”

   “It’s not busy here, so I don’t see why I can’t stay.” Suga pushed out her lower lip, furrowing her brows. “I’d rather stay here and eat doughnuts and talk with you while you clean stuff.”

   “I know, but you need to go to practice, so when we beat you in a match it’ll be a fair fight.” Daichi knew it was a risky move; Suga could either take the bait and go to practice with a fire in her belly or she could stay rooted to the spot and explain why exactly her team was  _ so much better _ than Daichi’s.

    Luckily, Suga seemed to be in the mood for the former. Because she puffed up, glared at Daichi, and shoved her phone in her pocket. Then, she leaned across the counter and grabbed Daichi’s shirt and pulled her close. For a heart stopping moment, Daichi thought she would kiss her, but she only whispered “Don’t worry so much, Dai-chan. I will have no problem beating you.”

    Long after Suga had left, Daichi was still having trouble catching her breath.

So, Daichi was 90% sure that her feelings towards Suga weren’t just one-sided. But that last 10% was a bitch.

    “…And Yahaba calls her out on in front of everyone, which of course makes Kyotani mad, so the rest of us have to suffer through the rest of practice, avoiding her spikes and such.” Suga’s voice over the phone is crackly, and the story she’s telling about people Daichi’s never met is a little boring, but Daichi’s still got a stupidly happy grin on her face.

    “Wow, that’s rough. Did Oikawa do anything?” Daichi asked, readjusting herself on her bed. She was leaning against the wall, head knocked back, and eyes closed.

     Suga’s sigh is punctuated by a blast of static. “No. She can’t control Kyotani. And Iwaizumi was gone today, so she couldn’t help out.” There was a crinkle, followed by “I just wish Yahaba wouldn’t rile up Kyotani so much. Like, I get it. Kyotani can be annoying, and it’s easy to irritate her. But that doesn’t mean we  _ should _ .”

     “I have a few excitable players on my team, but they’re not like Kyotani.”

     “She’s not excitable, she’s downright crazy.”

     “Like I said, not like Kyotani.”  _ Anything to keep her talking.  _ But Suga sounded like she was coming to the end of her story, anyway.

     “Okay, what about your day? I’ve been talking so much, you’ve hardly said anything.” Suga’s voice had grown soft, and sleepy. All the irritation seemed to have drained out of her. Daichi shrugged, even though Suga couldn’t see her. 

“Not much. Practice was practice. Hinata and Kageyama have been getting along better these days, so it’s been good for team morale.” She reached to run a hand through her hair, and remembered something else. “Oh, yeah. I got my hair cut.”

    “Wow, really?” Suga sounded legitimately surprised. “Miss Predictable got her hair cut? How short?”

    Daichi regretted bringing it up, but replied anyway. “Actually, it’s a pixie cut.”

    Silence. 

“Suga? Are you still there?”

    “You have to send me a picture right now.” Suga actually sounded borderline threatening. Like she would somehow reach through the phone and  _ make _ Daichi do it, if necessary.

    “O-okay, hold on,” Daichi fumbled with her phone, flipping through the pictures she had the stylist take until she came across one that wasn’t too bad. She sent it to Suga, and within seconds she heard a low whine from the other end.

    “Daichi.” Suga sounded far away, like she was still looking at the picture (which she probably still was). “You look so fucking sexy.”

    The shy grin that had been on Daichi’s face dropped, replaced by a spluttering and red expression. “Suga!”

    “Oh, you’re the shocked one?” Suga still sounded far away. “Tomorrow, when I come by the shop, I want to touch it. Can I?”

    “I guess, but, Suga-”

    “Good. My god, Daichi, I’m still in shock. I knew you were hot, but now you’ve transcended. Goodbye, world.”

    “Sugawara Koushi, what-”

    “SeeyoutomorrowDaichibyeIlikeyousomuch!”

    The line dropped dead, and left a red and confused Daichi staring at her lockscreen picture. It was the two of them, a selfie that Suga had taken when they had gone shopping.

    Daichi didn’t like how she looked in the picture (she had eye bags, a smudge of concealer on her nose, and a slightly surprised look on her face) but Suga looked beyond beautiful. Suga’s ashen hair was stuffed under her black DOPE beanie, and she had her arm hooked around Daichi’s shoulders, tugging her close. Her nose was scrunched up a little, and her grin looked like it was going to break her face.

    Daichi could deal with looking at her own face if it meant she could get a glance at happiness every time she open her phone.

    But right now, looking at Suga’s cute face was pure torture. Daichi pushed her phone, screen first, into her duvet, and pressed a pillow to her face.

_ Did Suga just tell me she likes me? No, no. She must have said that she likes my hair. But still, it’s part of me. Maybe she likes more of me? No, Daichi, cut that out. Suga is just a friend. A friend who tells you you’ve transcended from hot to sexy. A friend who pulls you really close to take a selfie. A friend who stops by your work every day to talk to you. A friend who… _

    Daichi pulled the pillow away from her face, and stared at the volleyball poster on the opposite wall.

“Oh. My. God.”

    Maybe Suga did like Daichi. And maybe Daichi should have known this long ago.

The next day, Daichi felt jumpy and unusually energized. It must have shown, because one of her coworkers asked her if she needed a cigarette to calm down, before another smacked them hard on the back of the head.

    “Why don’t you take a break out back? We can care of the shop for a few minutes.” The look on her face made Daichi blanch a bit (threatening, but in a concerned, “I know what’s good for you” kind of way) so she grabbed her coat and shuffled outside.

 

The biting wind was almost enough to drive her back inside, but Daichi found a niche that was relatively sheltered, and leaned against the chipped brick wall. She breathed out, and watched the misty cloud appear in front of her. Suga hadn’t dropped by that day, and based on Daichi’s observation, her practice had started about ten minutes ago. So Daichi had given up on the thought of getting answers. Instead, she pulled her hood closer to her head, and looked up at the sky.

    Soft flakes of snow drifted down, melting the moment they hit the ground. But they kept falling anyway. Daichi wasn’t sure if she was proud of them, or felt sad for them. After a moment of deliberation, she decided it was probably weird to feel anything about snowflakes, and was about to go back inside when she heard approaching footsteps. Whirling around, Daichi was planning her defense plan before she saw a familiar blue cat-eared beanie and beauty mark round the corner.

    Suga gave a small smile, and waved her hand at the shop. 

“They said you were outside.”

    Daichi relaxed, and nodded. Suga came and leaned next to her, eyes closed and mouth flat. When it became obvious Daichi wasn’t going to talk, Suga whispered. 

“Sorry, I don’t know why I came.”

    “It’s fine, but shouldn’t you be at practice?” Daichi, all too fast, found she didn’t want to know about Suga’s feelings. What if Suga didn’t really like  _ like _ her like Daichi like  _ liked _ her? The risk was still too big, too many missing factors to make even a guess. Was it worth it?

    Suga shrugged. “I skipped, and muted my phone. I can’t deal with her today.”

    Daichi chuckled, and lowered her gaze to watch the snowflakes hit the ground. 

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Suga. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I’m distracting you from volleyball.”

Maybe it wasn’t so weird to think about snowflakes. Maybe she was the one hurdling towards her demise. But should she stay suspended in the air, frozen and never knowing what could happen, or should she take that leap?

    “You definitely are.” Daichi’s breath hitched in her throat, and she felt a cold hand brush against her own. Daichi looked up, and saw Suga’s eyes already trained on her. Her other hand was reaching up, pulling back Daichi’s hood. The blonde’s eyes widened, and her fingers reached to brush Daichi’s bangs back.

     She paused, and let the strands fall back in place. The two stayed staring into each other’s eyes, and this time, there was no awkward giggle or furious blinking and blushing that followed. Just Suga’s hand on Daichi’s shoulder and her other hand in her hair, Daichi’s body inches from the other girl’s, breathing slow and steady. It was practiced, these past two, nearly three months, building up to this moment.

    Normally, Daichi would have cleared her throat and leaned back, glancing away from Suga and bringing up some dumb subject. And Suga would have gone along with this, slumping away from Daichi and letting the tension dissipate on its own. But Daichi was tired of this stupid dance, these almost kisses taunting her in her most susceptible moments.

     Maybe when she hit the ground, she wouldn’t melt away.

     So Daichi leaned in, letting her eyelids drift close and hands brush against the bottom of Suga’s coat. She waited for Suga to pull away, to drop her hands and look at Daichi with a disgusted expression. But the fingers on her body tightened, and Suga’s lips pressed against Daichi’s delicately. Daichi let her hands rest on Suga’s hips, pulling her a hair closer and moving her lips slowly. Suga made a small noise against Daichi, but kept kissing her gently and deliberately. Her fingers carded through Daichi’s hair, short nails scraping lightly and thin fingers stroking the dark strands.

    Off to their side, two snowflakes landed on a window sill. Intact, beautiful, and together.

    When they broke apart, Daichi became aware of how un-atmospheric the area was; a dingy alley, cold air, and a ground that was growing slushy from the falling snowflakes, but Daichi still leaned in to kiss Suga again. They were both smiling now, Suga shamelessly messing up Daichi’s hair, and Daichi’s hands trailing around the waist of Suga’s leggings. Their lips still moved cautiously, but the relief of finally,  _ finally _ , kissing each other was enough or Daichi.

Either seconds or months later, Daichi pulled away, feeling Suga’s lips chase hers until it Daichi started to speak. 

“I should get back to work.”

Suga nodded sagely. 

    “Mm.” She hummed against Daichi’s lips, which she had decided to capture again. Daichi, because she was weak and had little encouragement to do otherwise, kissed her right back. But when they pulled apart again, Daichi dropped her hands from Suga’s waist.

    “I mean it, Suga.”

    “I’m sure you do.” She unwound herself from Daichi, slowly, as if Daichi were going to change her mind. But when she didn’t, Suga took a step back, and shoved her hands in her pockets.

    The air, thick with unspoken words and implications, hung heavy around them.

    Daichi fumbled with her words for a minute. What do you say to someone you just kissed in an alley? 

    “I’ll, uh, call you later?”

    Suga nodded, shyly brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. 

    “Okay. Um, talk to you later then.” She turned to leave, then whirled around to peck Daichi on the cheek before taking off down the street. Daichi stayed rooted in place, freezing fingers still hovering at her sides and eyes watching where Suga had been a few seconds ago.

    “Oi, Daichi? What the fuck you doin’ out here?” One of her coworkers had poked her head around the corner, cheeks red from the cold. “You’ll freeze your tits off if you stand out here any longer.”

 

After that, Daichi began seeing Suga regularly outside of work.

    They would go on walks on the weekends, have meals before their practices, and lay in living rooms, sleep on couches together. When Suga got her nose pierced, Daichi was filming and holding her hand. When Daichi landed herself in the emergency room due to a practice match mishap, Suga was pacing the waiting room, nervously biting her nails and bothering nurses. When Daichi and her team got defeated in a tournament, Suga was at her house that night, comforting her and reassuring her it was okay. And when the same happened for Aoba Johsai, Daichi was at Suga’s side the moment after their team got off the court.

    But in some ways, their relationship had never changed.

    Some of Daichi’s favorite times were still when Suga would lean across the glass counter, pointing at sweets she wanted and bantering easily with Daichi. Sometimes, when no one was around (which was fairly often) Suga would pull the brunette in for a kiss and tell her how much she loved her and her squishy cheeks and godly thighs. And Daichi would blush and glance at the kitchen, were ovens hummed loudly and her coworkers snuck glances out at them. Then she would kiss Suga back and tell her how much she loved her and her nice calves and beauty mark. Then Suga would smack her on the arm and tell her she was embarrassing, and Daichi would just shrug, still red.

    It was just a high school romance, sure, but it was every bit as real to the two of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, approximately three months after I wrote it, this fic is seeing the light of day. 
> 
> Huge thanks to the person who beta'd, @MusicPrincess655!


End file.
